Half of businesses believe Eircodes will have ‘no impact’

An Ipsos MRBI survey conducted on over 150 businesses has found half do not believe the introduction of new Eircodes will have any impact on their operations.

Data Ireland, an information management systems company owned by An Post, commissioned the survey which polled a variety of groups from private industry as well as public sector and government bodies.

The survey found that 36% anticipate a positive impact from Eircode, while 4% believe it would be negative.

Half of those polled said they did not think the introduction of Eircode would have any effect on their business.

Morgan Nolan, director with Data Ireland, claimed the introduction of Eircode was an initiative “like nothing this country ever saw before”.

“While it’s good to see that over one-third of Irish businesses already foresee some benefits arising from the introduction of Eircodes in Ireland, the fact 50% don’t believe there will be any real impact shows not enough has been done to educate Irish businesses on the new systems and the whole raft of efficiencies it can bring to the way they do business,” he said.

“Eircodes will lead to strategic benefits to business by delivering new opportunities and efficiencies such as simplified compliance obligations, easier data quality management, sales and marketing planning, optimisation of product delivery, improved data analytics, better risk management and fraud prevention.

“All these added benefits can be used as tools for more effective and efficient delivery of service for Irish businesses,” Mr Nolan said.

When asked what they expect could be the main advantages of using postcodes in sales and marketing activities, 45% of businesses said that they would expect increased accuracy/ better delivery, while 33% said that they would anticipate better ability to target customers/ areas.

The planned €27m postcode system has been the source of controversy, with the Freight Transport Industry of Ireland this week submitting a complaint to the Ombudsman.

The complaint centres on concerns surrounding the awarding of a contract to evaluate Eircode’s implementation to the same consultancy company that advised the State on the code’s establishment.

The code has also been criticised by frontline emergency service workers.

The Irish Fire and Emergency Services Association said that the “mainly random nature” of the Eircode system would mean errors by users would go unnoticed, as well as cause confusion and may be “catastrophic” in terms of sending services to the wrong location.

The Data Protection Commissioner recently reaffirmed its long-held reservations about the nature of the code, which identifies individual addresses instead of streets or areas, similar to other postcodes internationally.